New Hearing Granted After Lawyer’s Tardiness Is Ruled to Have Deprived Man of Right to Counsel
A man convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison was granted a new hearing by an appeals court after his attorney failed to show up to the original hearing evidence on time.
A 4-1 Appellate Division, First Department panel held that it did not matter that the lawyer for the defendant, Heath Strothers, didn’t object to the hearing starting without him or whether or not the attorney’s tardiness affected the outcome of the hearing, the New York Law Journal reports. The defense lawyer arrived to the hearing on a motion to suppress evidence on drug charges partway through the direct examination of a special agent who led the task force that arrested Strothers and two other men.
“The right to have the assistance of counsel is too fundamental and absolute to allow courts to indulge in nice calculations as to the amount of prejudice arising from its denial,” the majority said in its opinion, citing Glasser v. U.S., 315 U.S. 60, 76 (1942). “Thus, we reject the People’s argument that the deprivation here can be overlooked because defendant was unrepresented for only a small portion of the cumulative testimony and that the portion counsel missed covered only background and general information.”
